Fernando Reimers

Education and structural adjustment in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa☆

Abstract The paper analyzes the performance of adjusting and non-adjusting countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America between 1980 and 1988. The analysis documents that the 1980s were a decade of growing austerity in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, which reduced the potential contributions of households to education. Adjusting countries also reduced public education expenditures. Facing reductions in funds, education Ministries cut disproportionately the share for teaching materials. Eventually teacher salaries deteriorated in real terms too. There were also declines in the relative number of children enrolled in primary school. In sub-Saharan Africa, adjustment decreased the opportunity to complete primary school disproportionately for girls. There were no effects of adjustment in the opportunity to access secondary or higher education. The main conclusion of the paper is that in reframing the study of the educational consequences of adjustment the main failure of adjustment is one of lost opportunities to include education and human resource development at the center of the restructuring process.

Where are 60 million teachers? The missing voice in educational reforms around the world

A wave of education reforms is sweeping the globe. At all levels, counties, municipalities, departments and states are expecting tnore and new things from schools. International organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank and regional hanks are calling for renewed efforts to sustain those reforms. Globalization, the search for new sources of competitiveness, and the goals of democracy, peace, and tolerance have heightened the expectations of the public about schools~andeducation systems. In these calls for reform and in the options which are brought forth to change schools, there is surprisingly little attention to the role of teachers. Some of the proposals for change advocate ‘teacher-proof’ innovations, which can sustain the impetus for change in spite of the teachers. In sotne other cases, teachers are absent frotn the discourse about change. In yet other cases, the role of teachers is not central to the proposals for change. For example, in the latest World Bank Education

The implementation of educational innovations: Lessons from Pakistan

Abstract Under what conditions will innovations in education be successfully implemented? A study of five innovations in Pakistan allows us to explore that question. They include the use of learning coordinators to improve school supervision; the adoption of teaching kits; adding primary schools to mosques; building residences for women teaching in rural schools; and the Nai Roshni project of drop-in schools for students who had never attended or had left school. Information about these innovations comes from interviews with over 100 Pakistani officials and experts on education and from a random sample survey of nearly 500 primary (elementary) schools and 1000 teachers. ∗ The paper draws on the five cases to illustrate a model of implementation that can be used for planning, managing, or evaluating educational innovation. The summary of each innovation contains only those details necessary to show key features of the model. Further information about the cases can be found in Warwick et al . (1991) The Implementation of Educational Innovations in Pakistan: Cases and Concepts . Development Discussion Paper No. 365 ES (Education Series) Harvard Institute for International Development, Cambridge, MA.

The Social Context of Educational Evaluation in Latin America

In the mid-1990s, a Deputy Secretary of Education in a country in Latin America convened a meeting of some of the best educational researchers in the country. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss preliminary results of the evaluation of student achievement which had been undertaken as part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The performance of students in this country was below that of students in most other participating countries. The Deputy Secretary asked the researchers to comment on how the results might be interpreted by the larger research community and by the public. After listening for the better part of the meeting, he asked all participants to return the draft presenting the results and said that the meeting should not be discussed; in fact, it could be considered as not having taken place. The results would be held in the strictest secrecy. The country informed the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) that it was withdrawing from the study and that no one could use or disseminate the data collected. The Director General of Evaluation was asked to keep the data secure and to prevent dissemination and utilization of the information.

The challenges for early childhood education policy in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract This paper aims to stimulate debate about the need to have national policies of early childhood education in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The paper justifies the need for early childhood education policies on two grounds: social demand, linked to the increase of women participating in the labor force, and educational efficiency, linked to the contribution of early childhood education to learning in primary school. The last section examines the role of resources and political commitment in the expansion of pre-school education and discusses some options to expand services in this field.

War, Education and Peace

Only a few weeks ago President Bush announced that the United States would return to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, after an 18-year absence. While this is a wise decision, it will only make a difference to global peace and security if the organization can rekindle its original mission: to focus attention on what is taught in schools throughout the world. This will require significant internal dialogue on the organization’s commitment to this moral purpose, greater participation of American educators and more vigorous intellectual collaboration between UNESCO and universities in the U.S.

Building Entrepreneurial Organizations to Make Learning in School Relevant (Innovations Case Discussion: iDiscoveri)

Living Knowledge System, an approach to improving the quality of education in India, demonstrates that there is room for entrepreneurs to innovate in education and to help fill the gap in the quality of education. This quality gap affects the vast majority of the world’s children, who have gained access to school as the result of the reforms and innovations of the last four centuries, which made basic education accessible to most around the world. The achievement of universal schooling was the result of a series of innovations introduced by policy and social entrepreneurs who built the global architecture that sustains compulsory access to basic education. The first among those innovators was Jon Amos Comenius, a Moravian minister who, upon reflection on the sources of violence and conflict, concluded in the seventeenth century that the foundation of peace rested in educating all people. This novel idea formed the foundation of national public education systems, a social innovation that would expand to a number of countries in Europe over the next two centuries. Central to the development of public education systems were technological innovations that made it possible to educate large numbers of children, with a limited number of skilled teachers, at low cost. Chief among them was the monitorial system of education, developed by Joseph Lancaster in the early nineteenth century, which allowed teachers to be assisted by students in a system of peer education in which a narrow, well-defined curriculum could be taught by more advanced students, or

Girls' Schooling, Women's Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia@@@Hope or Despair? Learning in Pakistan's Primary Schools

Primary Schools in Pakistan Students: Enrollment, Achievement, and Completion Teachers: Supply, Morale, and Quality Teacher Training: Value Added or Money Wasted? Gender and Achievement School Buildings, Textbooks, and Supplies School Organization: Administration, Management, or Leadership? Explaining Student Achievement Educational Innovations: Cases and Lessons From Failure to Success Index